In Rainbows

The big news this week in music land is that Radiohead are releasing their new album In Rainbows in a week... and they're doing it online. You can pre-order a copy and pay what you think is a fair price. This is apparently an attempt to bypass having to deal with record companies (fair enough too) by delivering directly to fans. It will be interesting to see how this affects things like sales charts (especially since you buy it from the UK-based site). But it's a commendable idea. Not every band can afford to do it, but those bands who can could make a greater profit this way and not have to compromise production values for the sake of sales and marketing. I'm looking forward to hearing the album, although since it's released on a Wednesday I'll have to wait until the weekend to get access to broadband so I can download it. Have a read here or here for more details.